No, not like this.
More like this
.
Except for when it looks like this. 
The girl just so happens to be me and the GOST just so happens to be a thoroughly intricate outline for a public relations campaign.
I love the outline because it is a way to organize your thoughts and ideas when organizing a campaign. GOST is part of the action planning step in public relations. It is basically the outline format you learned for note taking in school. It only makes sense to organize all of your thoughts in detail for all to see before beginning such a large project.
So why is it called GOST?
Good question.
GOST stands for
-GOALS
-OBJECTIVES
-STRATEGIES
-TACTICS
While I’m sure that all sounds very technical at first, it really isn’t. A goal is the end result that you want to see from your entire campaign. Objectives are measurable and attainable ways to reach your larger overarching goal. A strategy is how you are going to go about achieving your objectives and tactics are the small details that go into your strategies.
The first time I learned about the GOST outline was last year in my intro to PR class. We were given a very large project with real clients that year to make a PR proposal. Naturally we had to make one of these outlines ourselves. At first it was like a beast that you don’t know which way to tackle. It took a lot of hard work to get it down. Now, although it still can be a lot of work, I secretly enjoy making them.The more you practice making them the easier they become. At the end of the day you’ll be making a GOST outline for your personal life. That’s when you’ll know you’ve been bit by the PR bug.
Helen Berdebes, Junior Account Executive, KC CASA
